The Nebula's Civilization

Chapter 75: Ascension

If Lakrak died, others would reveal their hidden desires.

Lakrak and Zaol currently had two sons and one daughter, and though all three of them were still children, they were clever and courageous for their age. Therefore, no one could guarantee who would become the heir yet.

“But Quezle.”

“Yes?”

“I surely think I lack the qualities to be king.”

“What are you talking about? There has been no one like you on this continent, and there never will be.”

“Don’t say such things. Our descendents will be born on this land.”

“Why do you keep saying such things?”

Lakrak pointed at the bottom of the hill with his spear. The evil god was putting slaves and Vampires into its mouth regardless of who they were.

“Now there are less than half of them left. On the other hand, less than half of our warriors have escaped the fortress.”

“What?”

Quezle instinctively grabbed Lakrak’s wrist.

“King Lakrak.”

“I’ve witnessed such a scene several times. The power of the god won’t last long. You’ll survive if you go down the hill.”

“No, I can’t.”

“But that Bloodsuching Queen will survive as well. She’ll use the fortress to stop us and run away to the continent in the meantime. Many villages are still under the rule of the Vampires. And given how strong the evil god is, the continent will be ravaged by wars after wars for years to come or even longer.”

Lakrak’s gaze was directed towards the bottom of the hill.

Quezle walked up to Lakrak to block his view and said, “According to what you’re saying, it’ll be our victory anyways.”

“It’ll be a victory at the price of many sacrifices.”

“That’s still a victory.”

Only then did Lakrak look at Quezle.

“Quezle.”

“Yes?”

“You should learn more arithmetics.”

Lakrak then grabbed Quezle by the collar and threw him aside. The world seemed to rotate for Quezle, and things went dark. He hurriedly picked himself back up once he came to.

“King Lakrak!”

But Lakrak was not next to him anymore. Quezle looked down at the fortress wall. Riding Anakse, his monstrous mount, Lakrak sped down the hill. Right at the giant evil god slowly looking up at him.

***

“No!”

Sung-Woon unconsciously shouted. But there was no way his voice would reach Lakrak.

‘Why would he do such a stupid thing! I should take over Lakrka’s body with Divine Control.’

However, things didn’t go as Sung-Woon wished.

[Your priest is resisting your use of Divine Control.]

‘...What?’

Lakrak was the priest. He was the individual that had the most faith in the Blue Insect God, Sung-Woon, so there was no way he would go against Sung-Woon’s will. Then a message popped up.

[Would you like to force the skill anyways?]

[Yes / No]

Sung-Woon clicked No.

‘Damn it. If I forcibly use Divine Control when he’s resisting it, I won’t be able to do anything for a moment.’

That wouldn’t be a major penalty in a less dire situation, but when facing a literal god, there was no bigger penalty than that.

癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik turned their large figure around and threw a long spear at Lakrak. Actually, it might as well be a giant tree rather than a spear. The Cockatrice accelerated and avoided the spear. Then a cloud of dust erupted as the spear got pulled out of the ground.

‘What are you doing? Run away!’

Sung-Woon used a Miracle. A flutter of red butterflies flew around Lakrak. A blue butterfly indicated positivity, so red, blue’s complementary color, would be interpreted as negativity.

However, Lakrak escaped the flutter of butterflies as if they were getting in his way and shot an arrow at 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik’s face. The arrow hit 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik’s eye squarely, but there wasn’t enough power behind it since it’d been shot so high into the air. With one hand, 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik removed the arrow from their eye and swung a blade down.

‘Shit! Did he die?’

Lakrak hadn’t died. The Cockatrice leaped over the blade hitting the ground and ran.

A flash of lightning shot out from Lakrkak’s hand and hit 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik’s arm. The skin was charred black, but it didn’t seem to have caused much damage to 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik.

‘What do you think you’re doing? You know you’ll win if you just stay still. All you need to do is go back to the palace, talk to the warriors, converse with Zaol, and watch your childrens’ cute tricks. You’re still young. No warrior would dare challenge the throne for the next several decades.’

Lakrak advanced and borrowed Pzzt’s powers to strike 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik with lightning.

‘Why on earth…’

Sung-Woon finally decided to support Lakrak through Mricales. If Lakrak thought Sung-Woon had had a change of heart, he might allow Sung-Woon to use Divine Control. With a considerable amount of Faith points used, the sky split into several pieces with the first lightning. It seemed as if 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik had become a lightning rod. However, whenever lightning struck, 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik only flinched a bit, and it didn’t seem effective enough.

The lightning itself was powerful, but in order to inflict substantial damage to 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik, a Divine rank was needed.

And Lakrak rejected the use of Divine Control.

‘Is that what it is?’

Sung-Woon belatedly realized Lakrak’s intentions.

As if annoyed with Lakrak constantly hovering around them, 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik finally lifted their bow. A huge arrow shot towards Lakrak.

‘Some of the Black Scale Tribe’s warriors went against the tribal chief’s orders when they thought it necessary, didn’t they? So are you, the tribal chief, going against the will of God?’

Once again, Lakrak survived. The arrow that was several meters long shot straight into the hill perpendicularly. And it seemed Lakrak had come up with a new idea.

‘To save two lives with one? Did you use damn arithmetics again?’

Lakrak didn’t reply to Sung-Woon's inaudible question. Instead, he rode the Cockatrice to the arrow stuck in the hill. As if it understood Lakrak, the Cockatrice ran towards the arrow and used it as a springboard to take flight.

癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik didn’t expect that a mortal being would jump directly at them. None of their hands were defending their head. Lakrak held his spear over his head and drew his arm back.

‘Pzzt, do me the favor.’

-...Alright.

As soon as the spear left Lakrak’s hand, it struck 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik’s head with a violent burst of electricity. However, 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik was a god. Their hammer struck Lakrak and Anakse at the same time.

***

[The great hunter and thunder lizard.

The first chosen one and chief of the Black-Scale Tribe. Black Scale’s founding king, also known as the Thunder Dragon King.

The Lizardmens’ model and one who guides the way.

The greatest king of all.

And the one who was known to be good at arithmetics…]

***

[Your priest, Lakrak, has died.]

[You have lost XP.]

Sung-Woon clenched his teeth to the point that one could hear it.

And for a moment, he didn’t say anything. No, there wasn’t even any thought in his mind. Then he quickly came back to his senses.

‘It’s okay… The death of a priest is manageable. I assumed something like this would happen, which was why I quickly made the Human Hwee-Kyung a priest. I did lose quite a bit of XP, but my level only dropped by one.’

Sung-Woon really had thought it would be okay, but his heart ached for the loss. He might not be fine with it after all.

[Notice: A great sacrifice! Lakrak, who was respected by all, has died. Many mourn Lakrak’s death.]

Sung-Woon let out a puff of air from his nose. It was a notice that was sent out when a player’s highest level character died, and most players considered it a sarcastic insult to injury.

‘...Is it mocking me or something?’

Sung-Woon managed to get over it. It wasn’t something to be so sad about. He had created an Afterlife. It would take some time, but once the Afterlife was expanded, Lakrak, who was a hero, would certainly be useful there. Sung-Woon waited for Lakrak’s soul to appear.

‘What’s happening?’

Lakrak’s soul didn’t appear in front of Sung-Woon. Instead, a system message that Sung-Woon had never expected popped up.

[The individual, Lakrak, has become an apostle.]

[Apostle Lakrak has acquired a Divinity level.]

Sung-Woon read the system message and doubted his eyes.

‘No way. Lakrak became…an apostle?’

Apostle, namely those who assisted a god. When a god’s creations grew, or special beings such as dragons became the god’s followers, they could become apostles. There were cases where ordinary beings became apostles after showing growth, which was a process called Ascension. Apostles would gain their own Divinity levels and not only accept orders from their god, but also take the lead in spreading faith.

Sung-Woon rubbed his eyes and read the system message again. It remained the same.

‘This is impossible. Not all of the conditions for Ascension have been met.’

There were four conditions to Ascension. The individual must be a hero, which meant reaching a level of 21 or higher. Word about the individual had to be widely spread among others. And the individual must have internalized their faith in God.

‘Out of these three conditions, Lakrak has certainly hit the required level, but I’m not so sure about the rest. Word about Lakrak did spread among lots of people, but the extent of how much one’s name has to be spread is unknown. And the third condition can only be inferred. Just because I can look into the individual’s heart doesn’t mean I know exactly how much faith they have in me. A character can’t be Ascended just because a player wants them to be. And above all, the fourth condition definitely wasn’t met.’

The fourth condition was having over a million Faith points.

‘The maximum amount of Faith points I can have with my level 11 Divinity level is 100,000. In order to have a maximum of a million Faith points for an apostle to emerge, the player has to reach at least a Divinity level of 21…’

Thinking about his Divinity level, Sung-Woon checked his Faith points.

[999998/100K]

[999997/100K]

[999996/100K]

The Faith points that had been quickly consumed reached the maximum all of a sudden.

[100K/100K]

Sung-Woon realized what was happening.

The rate of Faith points being supplied was faster than the rate of Faith points being used to create an apostle.

‘How is this possible? …Where are these Faith points coming from?’

Sung-Woon looked down at the battlefield. Everyone was praying.

The giant evil god was still standing. And as if its anger towards Lakrak had accumulated, it brought their hammer down on his dead body again. However, none of those facing the evil god ran away. They stood firm, and they prayed. The Lizardmen of Black Scale, the slaves of the Vampires. Even the Vampires of White Tooth were praying.

Sung-Woon hadn’t been the only witness to Lakrak’s fight against the evil god. Everyone here had been watching Lakrak. And they all understood why and for whom Lakrak had fought the evil god. They had all survived thanks to him, and Lakrak’s name would be remembered by generations to come.

Just as Lakrak had intended, he had become the example of what choice people should make when they were in a state of disorder. Lakrak was right.

‘No, no. There’s no way. This isn’t enough number of people to produce such a great amount of Faith points. This game…’

…wasn’t a game.

Sung-Woon came to the realization. He had known for a long time. The Lost World was a game, but this world wasn’t. The system was the only thing maintaining the appearance of a game.

When quantifying things that couldn’t be measured by numbers, such as one’s heart, belief, and faith, the result could appear as an error. And the non-reducing Faith points was proof of that.

A system message popped up.

[Your priest, Lakrak, is requesting to Descend. Do you approve of this?]

[Yes / No]